Traitor’s Game

Description

It is the summer of 1940 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a city that has become a bustling strategic port for the war raging in Europe. In a wealthy South End neighbourhood, the daughter of a local Royal Navy commander has just been found murdered. Her father—who just happens to be the number-one suspect—and mother are missing. To complicate matters for Halifax Police Detective Mick Blackwell, the Royal Navy has claimed jurisdiction over his investigation.

On the other side of the Atlantic, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has just green-lit Operation Fish, an audacious gamble to ship Britain’s entire gold reserves across the storm-tossed, U-boat—infested North Atlantic to Halifax to prevent them from falling into Hitler’s hands. If Churchill’s gambit fails and the gold is sunk or captured, Britain won’t have the resources to continue the fight, and Germany will triumph by default.

A troubled soul and veteran of World War I who still suffers from “shell shock,” Blackwell must somehow connect the dots from his now off-the-books investigation back to Operation Fish, solve more than one murder, and foil a Nazi plot. His investigation will take him from the “cottage” mansions of Marlborough Woods, to the segregated Black community of Africville, into the heart of a Nazi espionage cell in Boston, and back to Halifax to change the course of the war’s history. In between, Blackwell will finally find the love he hadn’t known he was missing. But is Vera really who she claims to be?

Returning to the world of his award-winning non-fiction account Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War, award-winning journalist Stephen Kimber’s Traitor’s Game is a propulsive, clever, and atmospheric work of noir fiction, and the first in an enthralling new series.

Advance Praise:

“In Traitor’s Game, Stephen Kimber brings us a tangled mystery of murders, epic wartime political intrigue, and complicated love—all skillfully resolved by a tragically flawed Halifax policeman and a master storyteller.”
–Linden MacIntyre, award-winning, bestselling author of An Accidental Villain

“Stephen Kimber is an expert in the history of Halifax during World War II, as evidenced by his non-fiction book Sailors, Slackers, and Blind Pigs. Now he has put that knowledge and setting to brilliant use in Traitor’s Game. Deeply realized characters, superb writing, and an intricate and gripping plot kept me hooked from beginning to end. Kimber has created a wonderful lead character in Mick Blackwell, the detective and wounded war veteran who investigates and unravels a knotted web of secrets: military, political, and some all too personal. Readers will be anticipating the next adventure with Mick Blackwell.”
–Anne Emery, Crime Writers of Canada Award–winning author of Though the Heavens Fall

“Kimber’s police procedural draws on a masterful use of little-known but intriguing historical detail, blending fact and fiction with ease. His voice is distinctive, and he evokes the city and its era with complete authority. Wonderful stuff.”
–John DeMont, author of The Long Way Home: A Personal History of Nova Scotia

“Halifax, 1940: a brutal murder shatters the uneasy calm of a city engulfed by the Second World War. Warships crowd the harbour and strangers fill the streets as detective Mick Blackwell takes on a spiraling case that pits him against powerful authorities. Traitor’s Game is a taut, richly textured historical mystery that introduces a sympathetic detective haunted by trauma. And what a portrait of wartime Halifax! More please!”
–Ken McGoogan, author of Shadows of Tyranny

“Fans of Foyle’s War will love this riveting, fast-paced tale of murder, espionage, and a detective’s torment as he struggles for redemption. Stephen Kimber vividly recreates wartime Halifax in a gripping mystery that will keep you guessing—and reading.”
–Dean Jobb, author of A Gentleman and a Thief and Empire of Deception

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